Now it's not surprising that an 80 year old woman has died but Maria was one of those women who you just thought would be around forever. I may mangle this timeline so forgive me. She was originally my grandparents housekeeper in Puerto Rico. My parents moved back and to PR and they had me. When my parents decided to move to New York somehow it was decided that she would come, too. And she brought her only son, Luis. Yeah, Luis and I shared the same name but for some reason he was called Luisito, which is the diminutive nickname for our name. So it must have been fun for him to have me, a 4 year old at the time, calling him Lil' Luis.
Anyway, she lived with our family for as long as I can remember. She was always down the hall. Even after she retired years ago and moved out to live in her HUD apartment she would still come to my moms house and lord over the new crop of nannies and housemaids. She was always a favorite of the building staff. Offering them lunches and place to chill during their shifts. She was always looking out for me in overly protective ways. I recall famously she once told me not to go the pizza place wearing my sunglasses because they were the style that the gangsters prefer and that I would get shot. These were $5 sunglasses I bought on the street. She was always worrying. Always disappointed in my Spanish. Always overreacting to things. All annoying at the time and now greatly missed.
I feel the guilt now of not having been in touch with her more as she got older. My only encounters with her were when I would stop by moms house to get mail or the occasional emergency bathroom break. Luckily she got to spend some time with Ace on a few occasions before she passed away. Here are some great pics of her from Ace's last birthday.
I'm kind of choked up at the moment so I'll just end it here.
